The Corpus: Glastonbury 03 (abbey)

Volume 7: South West England

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Current Display: Glastonbury 03 (abbey), Somerset

Overview

Object type: Fragment, probably part of cross-shaft

Measurements: H. 27.5 cm (10.5 in); W. 15 cm (6 in); D. 8 cm (3 in)

Stone type: As Glastonbury 2, but in this piece there is a beautifully preserved, small, star-shaped asteroid/crinoid fragment.

Plate numbers in printed volume: Pls. 232-3

Corpus volume reference: Vol 7 p. 154

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Present Location

Glastonbury Abbey Museum, GLSGA:1998/1202; S775? (formerly A224)

Evidence for Discovery

Recovered from a house in the High Street. Probably the one mentioned by Clayton as '... built into a summer-house in a garden behind one of the houses in the High Street (Glastonbury) ...' (Dobson 1931, 187)

Church Dedication

the Blessed Virgin Mary

Present Condition

Weathered, damaged by reuse, traces of mortar

Description

A (broad): Part of a surrounded pattern C knot with median-incised strands, traces of an edge moulding on one side

B and D (narrow): Broken away

C (broad): Flat, smooth and plain

Discussion

This has a close resemblance to Glastonbury 1, but the incised strand and the single encirclement are closer to the Hampshire examples quoted under Glastonbury 1 (see p. 153). It is also of a different stone type from Glastonbury 1, but this seems to be a pattern which is favoured at about the same time.

Date

Ninth / tenth century

References

Dobson 1931, 187; Foster 1984, 66, no. 17, fig. 8b; Foster 1987, 73, no. 16, fig. 18b (wrongly captioned); Cramp 2001, fig. 2d

Endnotes

None